Would you not enjoy at Sattvik, an unusual dish for us that is, aranchini rice ball made of aromatic rice Joha stuffed with different vegetables? Or for that matter, a cheela made of drumstick leaves by another group might give you nutrition, taste and aesthetic pleasure. So many farmers and entrepreneurs have brought different traditional and new dishes. Painting dry cotton balls in different colours is a children idea from dendhuki. You can visit Sattvik tomorrow and also on 25th to partake satvik food, ingredients, crafts are on display by 50 women groups supported by Ministry of Women and Child Development from Jammu and Krishna, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Bihar and so any more places.
Children are enjoying the innovation maze designed by GIAN team. Children have to find their way out and when they get lost, they find a new innovation. Should not we all get lost some time if that helps us discover innovations. There is a photo shoot site nearby on a designer cycle rickshaw and also a children creativity spot near GIAN maze. Come and get lost.
It in addition to this, we have tried to add more meaningful cultural activities this time including a poetry session chaired by Shri Raghuveer Chaudhary, a distinguished Jianpeeth awardee. Sessions by eminent doctors on preventive health including by ayurvedic experts, physiotherapist, orthopaedic experts, diabetic specialists etc., are also there.
There were several policy advocacy sessions on behalf of organic farmers and start-ups. Some of the suggestions we made are: a) there should be open access space in every city for farmers to sell their organic produce directly to consumers; b) just as start-ups, generally from urban areas, have been given five years of relief from a lot of procedural requirements, organic farmers should also be allowed for at least ten years to sell their products without too many restrictions and requirements; c) farmers income cannot be increased without reducing costs. One way is to reduce the cost of inputs by using herbal pesticides and growth promoters. SRISTI has perhaps the only lab dedicated to develop such products and test their efficacy. We need many more such well-equipped labs in the country to promote sustainable agriculture; d) dissemination of sustainable practices through kisan call centre must become obligatory. AT this stage they just promote chemical including some which are banned in many other countries; e) the start-ups should share their failures and set back to help budding entrepreneurs in charting their future path; f) not many states have included the stories of innovators from and for grassroots in the textbooks and curriculum; how will a culture of innovation evolve in the true terms, g) the support from regulatory agencies need a lot of strengthening. The motorcycle based and now chahsis based santi, multipurpose agri machine sis still not eligible for to approval and thus is illegal in the strict sense of the terms Every year Gujarat itself has a sale of about ten thousand santis, all illegal but all legitimate. On one had government has a policy of promoting circular economy but on the other, it will not approve solutions using second-hand parts.
I hope we will hear from many of you in coming two days more suggestions to make the eco-system for promoting women based enterprises, organic agriculture, farmer-consumer interface and promotion of innovations for and from grassroots. We will pursue many more ideas at the fourth International conference by the Honey Bee Network on Creativity and Innovation at IIMA January 28-30, 2019. You are welcome to register at iccig.org and learn and share your ideas.
